Basal resistance enhances warming tolerance of alien over indigenous species across latitude

Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, volume 115, issue 1

Abstract

Soil systems are being increasingly exposed to the interactive effects of biological invasions and climate change, with rising temperatures expected to benefit alien over indigenous species.

We assessed this expectation for an important soil-dwelling group, the springtails, by determining whether alien species show broader thermal tolerance limits and greater tolerance to climate warming than their indigenous counterparts.

We found that, from the tropics to the sub-Antarctic, alien species have the broadest thermal tolerances and greatest tolerance to environmental warming. Both groups of species show little phenotypic plasticity or potential for evolutionary change in tolerance to high temperature.

These trait differences between alien and indigenous species suggest that biological invasions will exacerbate the impacts of climate change on soil systems, with profound implications for terrestrial ecosystem functioning.

Citation

Janion-Scheepers C, Phillips L, Sgrò CM, Duffy GA, Hallas R, Chown SL (2018) Basal resistance enhances warming tolerance of alien over indigenous species across latitude. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America PDFDOI

The focus of my research is on understanding the genetic basis of adaptation to environmental change.

My group uses a range of approaches that include comparisons of populations collected from along latitudinal gradients, experimental evolution, quantitative genetics, phenotypic manipulations and genomics... MORE